Exceptionalism Abounds
by Blue-Jaye.Fevre
Summary: Sequel to Capital Cowboys: After the group finds a heavily coded treasure map, they set off on a winding adventure throughout the wasteland to find its bounty. Along the way they are forced to confront their pasts and a growing threat to post-war DC. Rated M for Drug usage, violence, language, Sexual content. All OC main characters.
1. Prologue: If old hymns you like

**Here is the long awaited sequel to Capital Cowboys! Enjoy!**

* * *

In a bare metal cell lay a man. He was of middling height, and of no remarkable features brought about from his birth to his present condition. The malnutrition had made him emaciated, a shade next to other men. The radiation had made him blind and prone to nervous fits and convulsions. The "treatment" his captors gave to him resulted in little more than broken bones, split cartilage and bruises beyond counting.

Except that the prisoner had counted, had noted then number of bruises left on his torso, his arms and legs and it was three and forty marks his captors had been generous enough to leave on him.

And for many starless nights the man had lain in this cell, dreaming and seeing the world beyond his cell and its passageways. There threads began to emerge, patterns dancing through his sight as though they were jumping up and down, waiting to be found. Patterns could be exploited.

Threads could be interwoven.

So he watched during the starless nights and sunless days. He spent his solitary time looking at the threads.

And he waited.

* * *

Anatoliy Turchin had never been one for puzzles. He had always liked breaking down components, reconstructing machines, repairing weaponry and other similar tasks which had always puzzled him as to why he didn't find riddles or games of the mind enjoyable.

Maybe it was the intellectual aspect, the idea of analysis. Maybe Nate didn't like to waste otherwise valuable time with contemplating a game when the world outside his four walls conspired to kill him in any way possible.

You didn't need to be overtly academic in the wasteland, the land of slavers and raiders; mutants and feral ghouls; Deathclaws and Mirelurks; even less exotic deaths like thirst, starvation, indigenous wildlife, disease and of course radiation. Radiation was the pale horseman amount a nuclear warhead, and it had a propensity to kill wastelanders more frequently than anything else.

In a place where the air you breathed was slowly killing you, the need for philosophy and inventions of education were only important in their pragmatism: You could read a book that would help you grow better crops, or learn how to read to understand a caravan contract, but you wouldn't read a book on the nature of human evil, in part because humanity was evil to begin with.

Nate sighed and rubbed at his temples, trying to make sense of the tattered ledger that lay on his workstation. It looked like every other ruined, molding pre-war book in he had ever laid eyes on. Except that it wasn't in several capacities.

For one, it was the only book he had found in The Antagonizer's lair, one week prior. It was sitting on the middle shelf of a five shelf tower. The other shelves had been filled with either wooden boxes crammed with toys, spare parts, and other bits of junk, while this book sat squarely in the center of this intermediate shelf.

Nate had grabbed it along with anything else of value in the Antagonizer's bedchamber before Anais found the explosives. At the time he figured it was more than just a ledger, something that would have been valuable two hundred years prior to the war, but now only academic in its existence in the wasteland. He realized that there was a strong possibility that the item was valuable.

It turned out that Nate had stumbled onto printed gold when the group evaluated the spoils back at Ridgefield.

* * *

It hadn't been much of a problem for a heavily armed and only slightly wounded war band to trek across the wastes, so the return trip was only mildly eventful, with a small pack of mole rats attempting to savage the group. (On a side note, Nate decided he would have to try Leon's famous Mole Rat Bacon in a few hours, when the sun rose.)

Upon arriving, they were greeted by the Lazarus, Rafael, Becca, and the ever surly Jaxon. Despite their injuries and pitfalls, the group came out ahead, netting a hefty two thousand caps between their reward from Roe, their scavenging and reselling of the goods from Canterbury's service tunnels, and finally the miscellaneous caps acquired from the various raiders and other malcontents they had slain to, at, around and from Canterbury itself.

So he had been paid by Haskel and had returned to his workspace in the basement of his house and he let himself get lost in the cleaning and maintenance of a dozen separate weapons.

Later that night he was summoned to a small meeting at the officer's house, for reasons not made apparent to him. Nate would have been lying if he had said he wasn't exhausted from the events of the last few days. Death wasn't exactly a refreshing vacation.

Nonetheless, he wasn't about to turn down an order, not so soon after getting paid by Haskel and especially not if Palmer had been sent to fetch him. He had ambled up to the Officer's quarters, where Vincent, Lazarus, Leon, Haskel and Palmer were waiting. Becca showed up right after Nate, looking unnerved.

The large living room was dominated by two separate couches with a coffee table between them. Vincent sat in the middle of the couch opposite the doorway, with Leon and Lazarus flanking him. Haskel stood towards the back of the room by what looked like a bar and poured several drinks, while Palmer leaned against the wall left of the door. Nate took his seat on the empty couch while Becca stood for a brief period before giving up and sitting on the couch, her eyes immediately darting to the ledger on the table and widening with shock.

"It can't be…" Becca murmured, eyes transfixed on the unassuming book sitting by itself on the coffee table.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves now; we don't know anything for sure." Leon offered in a placating fashion. Haskel offered Nate a glass of Whiskey, which the young man politely turned down.

"It's just a moldy ledger kid, stop getting your hackles up over it. There's nothing in it but pages upon pages of inventory and other pre-war garbage, nothing wild and exciting." Palmer muttered. The lumbering security (ex-security) chief was still shaking off his injuries he sustained in Canterbury.

"Still, if this is the case, and we are correct in our assumptions…" Lazarus offered vaguely.

Nate slammed his hands down on the table, thoroughly irritated by the antics of his superiors.

"All right, no more magic mystery _ерунда_! I've been nearly killed three separate times by explosions, raiders and exposure. I've had a ghoul doctor use god knows _what_ kind of medicine to bring me back, and I have a mountain of things I need to get done. With all due respect Captain, either enlighten me or stop wasting my time." The mechanic stared into the eyes of his leader, newfound fire grounding his well-honed senses of self-perseverance or safety.

Vincent nodded before turning to Becca. "You grew up in the wastes, did you not?"

Becca, eyes never leaving the ledger, nodded in agreement slowly. "I did so. My parents were scavengers from the Metro, but we moved out towards Megaton after I was born. We did a lot of traveling, followed in the shadow of the caravans mostly. Picked up on things, learned with my eyes. Heard a lot of talk, heard a lot of stories. Some just fables, others…" Becca waved her hand over the ledger.

Something began clawing at the back of Nate's mind, a foreboding dread that creeped into his mind.

"Well? It's a ledger, is it not? It's just a big book of inventoried items." Nate said, trying to diffuse the situation, to shove the warning signs down with logic.

"No, we looked it over. It's faded but post-war. Nate, this ledger is a post-war book of documentation. Beyond that there are all kinds of clues throughout the book, abbreviations of post-war towns, and references to people even." Lazarus added in defense.

Nate sat quietly, beginning to form a picture of what might be sitting on the table in front of him.

"So it's a guide, or a roadmap?" 'Still nothing to go wild over, or hold a 2 am meeting.'

"Yes, I can quite evenly declare this to be a roadmap. But in regards to its intent you must examine the item for what it is. Go ahead Anatoliy, open the book and read." Haskel waved his hand over the table, as though permission was his to give in this process.

Nate picked up the ledger and inspected the outside, before flipping it open and reading the passages.

It didn't take a Brotherhood Scribe to determine that the pages were covered in a thousand kinds of crazy.

"It's not a road map… it's… I don't know what in the holiest hells this is. More exposition please?" Nate added, exasperated with his peers. Little did they see the flush of panic creeping up his neck.

"Riddle Trailers weren't uncommon up north. Scavengers frequently used them as means to find their way back to their treasure stashes. Other times they were traps meant to lure in scavengers rob them." Lazarus continued.

Nate sat back, waiting for Vincent to tell them all that they were wrong and that they could return to doing what mercenaries did.

"You're telling me this thing is a treasure map?! A follow the trail to the treasure kind of map?" Nate concluded.

"The thing is though this isn't your ordinary bread crumb." Leon added, taking a swig of beer while languidly sprawled on the couch. "You see, Riddle Trailers are typically recorded on holotapes and left scattered about. Writing though? That's old fashioned and rare. There are far fewer scavengers who know how to write properly."

"So it leads to a trap then." Nate continued, ignoring the gnawing feeling in his stomach, the dredging up of old memories.

"At first we thought so. Riddle Trailers are almost never maps to treasure, especially ones written as opposed to being recorded. The problem is there's no destination." Haskel supplied from the bar, standing a gingerly sipping at his whiskey.

Nate turned a confused look to Vincent. "I thought that the point of something like this was to lead you somewhere?"

"Not unless it is triple layered. Not unless there is code underneath the code, the true code." Becca finished shaking.

"All right then." Nate was giving Becca a fantastically unimpressed face. "Look, if you want someone to break the code, why not get Mirza on this? He's the king of hacking this kind of shit." 'You knew someone like that once little Anatoliy.'

"We would, but there is one small, almost insignificant problem we've found so far."

Palmer snorted. "Way to sugarcoat it Sforza. Nate, the third layer is written in a script none of us recognize."

Nate's heart skipped a beat.

"Barnaby recognized the script from pre-war propaganda. Nate, he says that it's Russian."

* * *

Nate sits quietly before inhaling deeply. "After Nikolai was expelled from Rivet City our family followed him out into the wastes. It was the principle of family that kept all of us together. It was something drilled into our heads for years. My mother spoke of never being able to trust outsiders, never mind the fact that she was a wastelander herself. It was the Turchin mentality that kept us together. We were refugees before the war, during the war, and after the war. We had no one else to lean on but each other, and after Nikolai's actions things only got worse. Family came before all others…" Nate recited calmly.

"All right Nate, but what does that mean exactly." Vincent inquired, taking another sip of his whiskey.

"I'm getting there, let me fill in the cracks. My grandfather had three children that left the city with him: Natalyia, the eldest had a husband and several children. Her younger brother and the middle child Ilyich remained a bachelor and had no offspring, whilst his younger brother and Nikolai's youngest Andrei would go on to have three children with his wastelander wife Patsy. I was the youngest of those children. My father was still a child when we left, and his oldest sister was barely thirteen at the time. Twenty years passed before Nikolai succumbed to radiation poisoning while scavenging the DC metro tunnels. By that time we had established a small ranch west of Megaton…"

Leon shifted uncomfortably, a fact that neither Vincent nor Nate miss. Nate continues nonetheless. "By the time my grandfather had actually passed away, my father and his siblings were doing all right by their trades and talents. Natalyia had met a dour if hardworking scavenger and did right by her. Ilyich however… he was not content with the quiet ranch life. He wanted to strike it rich in the wastes, but he was always bound by family. My father told me that Ilyich and Nikolai fought incessantly and that Ilyich was constantly chafing under his father's commands. After he died however, Ilyich realized how much he was needed for his family. So he stayed with us, but he never really forgot about his dream…"

"Another decade passed, and soon the ranch was becoming cramped between Natalyia's brood and my own branch of the Turchin family. Ilyich and Natalyia's husband got along just as poorly as Nikolai had with my uncle. For years things tensions had been building between the two, never quite settling. I was still a very young boy when Ilyich left, and I only remember his tall tales of the wasteland." Nate pauses, massaging his throat tenderly.

"Eventually Ilyich and Natalyia's husband got into a fight over something or other and he drove him off. My father was disappointed by his brother-in-law's behavior and I don't think he ever quite forgave Natalyia for failing to stand up for her younger brother. Eventually Natalyia's children began to have children, and our little family of five was too much as well. We split off from them and found smaller accomodations further west. We thought it was a good maneuver at the time…"

Nate sighs regretfully, his body shaking. "At the time a band of raiders had been making their home in a nearby canyon. At the time it was a small group, but they were vicious and soon they became famous for their aptitude for slaving and raiding. I was fourteen at the time, and I had snuck off to the nearby hovel of Jury Street to see the exciting caravans. There I met a handsome tribal trader and I found myself spending the night at Jury Street."

"When I returned to my home the next day, the ranch was burnt to ash, and my brother and father's bodies were… displayed against the walls of our home. I never saw my mother or sister. She was barely older than me..."

"I eventually returned to Jury Street, and traveled with the caravan to their next stop, which happened to the depressed settlement of Grayditch. I said goodbye to the tribal man and plied my trade with electronics and machinery for the next few years."

"I never forgot about Uncle Ilyich, but I never heard anything about him after he left. We assumed he was swallowed by the wastes, as most scavengers are." When Becca gave him a sharp look Nate raised his hands in an attempt at peace. "_Most_ scavengers."

Vincent tapped at the coffee table. "Do you think that your uncle somehow survived, and this was his Riddle Trailer?"

Nate shook his head in disbelief. "Is it possible? Yes. Is it unikely? I haven't heard a word about a Russian scavenger in the 11 years since Ilyich left Natalyia's ranch. Still, stranger things have happened in this godforsaken basin."

"This is all pointless though, isn't it?" Leon interjected, staring questioningly at Nate.

Holding back lash worthy comments, Nate asked Leon to clarify. "Well, for starters we can't read the thing. Even if we can properly decode it, it's in Russian."

"Yes, such a terrible shame we don't have a Russian mechanic raised by Russian ex pats who occasionally swears at his teammates in Russian." Haskel deadpanned from the bar.

"Wait, how do you know I swear?" Nate asked incredulously.

"Context my dear Anatoliy, context is everything." Haskel replied.

"All right, but can he read written Russian, Margulies?" Leon shot back.

Nate nodded. "My reading was always better than my speaking."

Vincent rapidly stood up. "You, Mirza and Haskel and Lazarus will work on the decoding and translation of the Riddle Trailer. Let me know when you've found something. Meeting dismissed."

* * *

**And we're off! Expect a lot more content in the days to come! :D Thanks for reading and be sure to review!**


	2. Urban Legends

"Biggest shithole you've been to Rafe?" Jaxon called out to his seatmate.

"Bethesda, but I'd say Paradise Falls is a close second."

"Fuckin' Jones, I'll give you that kid. But the Falls ain't so bad. Most of the slavers are in the trade for the caps. Now there are some vicious bitches there for sure. But not all of them."

"It's really reassuring that a Talon just vouched for the considerate nature of Jones' Slavers." Anais deadpanned from across the room.

"Oy, either commit to the conversation or go back to your brooding! No peanut gallery nonsense Anais!" Siobhan heckled from the dining table set up in Gibson House. The team was relaxing after the madness at Canterbury. Relaxing of course was defined as getting smashed at Gibson House with most of the team assembled.

Sledge and Ginny held the watch, while the ever reclusive Doctor was down in his basement clinic, which left the remainder of the team who weren't present at the meeting to enjoy partying hard.

As Siobhan leaned back into her chair she considered what on earth Vincent and the team's leadership could be discussing at the present moment. Rafael, Jesse, and Jaxon were her drinking companions for the evening, while Felix and Teo were engaged in a much quieter conversation in the house's kitchen. Anais was sitting to herself on the other side of the room drinking and perhaps contemplating the mysteries of the universe.

More likely she was just being anti-social.

"What about you girlie? Where's the harshest hellhole you've ever visited?" Jaxon asked, following his comment with a swig of irradiated beer.

"Crossing the Atlantic is pretty cocked up mate. Nothing but ocean, for days and days until you see land. The water is murky and if you look long enough you can watch shadows move underneath the wave. Distortion makes them look smaller than they actually are, so you never know if it's a big fish, or something that can swallow your boat whole."

"Sounds like good eats." Jaxon cackled back. Siobhan rolled her eyes.

"Still not as bad as Point Lookout." Jesse grumbled from his seat.

"Where the hell is that?" Rafael asked.

"You've never heard of the southern point?" Jesse asked incredulously.

"I drove the merchants north of the Potomac basin, not in the metro areas where that damn boat is everyone keeps talking about." Rafael shot back.

"The point… A'right, it's like home and hell at once: Swamps, tribals, 'lurks, ghouls, other critters… and then the swamp folk. Throw in some deranged tourists and hot, heavy air and you've got Point Lookout. Some days I miss the mires 'n the hollows."

The table sat quietly staring at their seat mate. "Sounds like a real piece of shit kid." Jaxon finished before the front door swung open.

Becca strode in, and pulled up a chair in between Siobhan and Rafael. Jesse tossed her a beer, which she caught deftly and opened with both hands. Siobhan caught immediately that she was distressed.

"Have fun entertaining the officers?" Jaxon asked crudely.

"Go fuck yourself Jaxon." There was little heat behind the words, but this was the first time Siobhan had heard the little scavenger deride one of the cowboys.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" Jaxon growled back at her, anger creeping into his body language.

"You know that bounty Nate found in the Antagonizer's lair?" Becca posed to the table. Siobhan didn't miss the subtle shift in Anais body language.

"The little piss-ant found some random crap, so what?" Jaxon retorted, still unimpressed.

"St. Stephen's Log was in that pile." Becca finished.

You could have heard a bobby pin drop. Siobhan recognized the name, but hardly the item.

Rafael and Anais were both staring at Becca, while Jaxon's face was embroiled in a battle between shock and disbelief. Jesse was on the same level as Siobhan, if a little more confused.

"What the hell is St. Stephen's Log?" Siobhan asked loudly.

Felix and Teo came bursting out of the back, limbs flailing and faces surprised at the news. "That's insane. The log was believed to be destroyed years ago."

Becca slowly shook her head. "I recognized it. My parents acquired it from the Scrapyard close to five years ago. They pawned it off on a man less than a week after owning it. My dad would swear for years to come that he was seeing the widow around the day he sold it to a caravaneer."

"Back the hell up here kids, tell the foreigner and the greenhorn here what this thing is."

Rafael was the one to speak up. "About a decade ago Scavengers began to recall tales of a Riddle Trailer-"

"What the hell is that?!" Siobhan sputtered.

"Erm, well it's a Riddle Trailer." An awkward silence descended on the table, as only three present members in the room had anything close to an education on pre-war terminology.

"And what is that exactly?"

"Erm… okay so it starts with a code that you solve in order to understand the message. Except the translated code is a kooky phrase or clue or some other shit. That leads to next code. These codes and their answers build on each other until they point to the direction of something."

"So… it's a treasure map?" Siobhan asks amusingly.

"A treasure map written by the devil perhaps." Teo quips from the back of the room.

Siobhan raises an eyebrow at him, interested at why he would think that. He continues, face less surprised and far more sheepish than earlier. "The legends around the wasteland dictate that-"

"Oh no you don't Brotherhood pretty boy, I get to finish the damn story first." Rafael barks from his seat.

"THEN GET TO THE DAMN POINT!" Siobhan roars back in frustration, causing her tablemates to take a reflexive step back. Taking a deep breath, Siobhan turns to Rafael and motions him to continue with the origins of this seemingly important document.

"All right, sheesh. Around a decade ago this book started showing up. It was filled with post-war information, like a log of who was in control of which locations in the wasteland, how many units they had, etc. The book passed hands with disturbing frequency." Rafael sits back, as though telling a campfire story.

"Get _on_ with it you twat." Siobhan snarls, causing Rafael to carry on.

"After about a week, the owner of the book would be found dead. For the first few years after the book was seen no one could figure out how or why, but they would be found dead. Methods vary, but there was never a culprit found in any of the cases. Then a scavenger named Stephen got a hold of the book."

"Stephen was smart, more so than a lot of Scavengers, and he had an affinity for solving puzzles. See where I'm going with this?"

"He figured out that it wasn't just a log, but it was actually a Riddle Trailer. From there he started working out the solution. He held onto the book for two whole months before abandoning any attempts to solve it. He gave it to another scavenger to solve in his place years ago. After he died several months later they renamed the book in his honor. Stephen was a good man, and some smarter wastelanders even referred to him as a Saint."

Siobhan rolled her hand impatiently. "Yes yes, he was a good guy so they renamed the book St. Stephen's Log. How does this pertain to us?"

"Better yet, why don't those dumbasses just destroy the book? It's just a book, nothin' scary."

"One at a time: It can't be destroyed. The riddle trailer is apparently massive, and some speculate it leads to grand treasure. The worth is too great to just get rid of. Besides, the book seems to have a mind of its own."

"Books don't think." Jaxon countered.

"You've heard of Warrington right?"

"Destroyed suburb near Tenpenny Tower right?" Jaxon answered.

"I was there the last time a scavenger tried to destroy it."

"Left Hand Lew?" Becca finished forlornly.

Rafael nodded solemnly. "Lew made a big deal about destroying the book for the good of the wasteland. As he was about to destroy the book a .308 round took his head clean off his shoulders, and a sniper began picking off everyone who didn't flee the book. After that I heard it was lost in an explosion outside Friendship Heights."

"As for why it pertains to us, well we have the book. And either we can solve it or we can dump it off on the next person. The golden rule is that whatever we decide on, we need to keep solving it, otherwise we'll end up like it's previous owners. Of course, if you pass it on then you are penalized."

Siobhan nods, then turns back to Becca. "You said something about a widow?"

Teo interjects. "The longstanding myth of St. Stephen's Log is the Widow of Jury Street is seen by the owner of the Log throughout the time they own the book. Stephen himself confirmed that he would often see a woman or a figure following him. The talk is that the Widow is the executioner of the book's owner."

"Who is this widow?" Siobhan asked, her mind spinning with these strange stories.

"The Widow of Jury Street was a ferocious warrior whose gang controlled Jury Street over ten years ago. At that time the nearby raider fort of Evergreen Mills was owned by Krusher the King, a dim if territorial raider chieftain reknowned for his cruelty and skill at arms. Long story short Krusher lead his army to take Jury Street for himself. The widow led her gang valiantly in the fighting but lost both her gang and her lover until she was cut down by explosives."

"According to the story passed by those who've traded with the handful of older raiders who are less vicious than today's brood, two days had passed since the battle when Krusher was found cut into a dozen pieces in his bedchamber. Serious stuff Siobhan."

"How does a Brotherhood Scribe know so much about wasteland urban legends?" Siobhan inquired lightly.

Teo's sheepishness returned tenfold. "I… enjoy listening to the caravan traders and wastelanders around Arlington. _Enjoyed_." The last word falling with a note of slight sorrow.

Siobhan shook her head, more reeling from all of the madness that surrounded these revelations. While she empathized with Teo's homesickness, she also remembered specifically why she had crossed an ocean to the land beyond the Atlantic. Beyond such musings, she was curious about one other factor:

Why hadn't Vincent been the one to tell them?

* * *

As Becca left, Leon sighed and broke the silence of the remaining officers. Vincent and Lazarus were still seated, Palmer was now seated where Nate had been moments before, and Leon had moved to the bar to freshen up his drink. Moving around the bar, Leon took a languid sip of his scotch and motioned to Palmer.

"So, Palmer. Do you think that book is what I think it is?"

"It's a riddle trailer. What else did you think it is?"

"I think it's the Riddle Trailer."

"I-" Palmer stopped momentarily, looked to the door, then back to Leon.

"That… is a possibility. If so, why didn't Becca say anything?"

"Looks speak volumes Palmer. Becca not only knew what that book was, but what baggage came with it."

"Am I missing something here?" Vincent asked. Leon smiled sympathetically and shifted his feet.

Leon regaled him with the details of the Log. After a good ten minutes of patiently listening, Vincent stood up, refreshed his whiskey and then proceeded to sit back down.

"Did you know about this?" Vincent poses. Leon looks confused and goes to speak before catching the look on Palmer's face. _Keep your mouth shut._

"I've been hearing rumors about St. Stephen's Log for years now. I confirmed them while you were gathering strength in the Metro."

"Any reason you kept it secret Lazzie?" Leon notes Vincent's posture: In a word, tense.

"You've already set forth the chain Vince. Better to have done it right than not at all. The moment Turchin picked up that book he set off a timer. Better to give our intention as placating than to sit on our hands and meet a grisly fate."

"Damn it Lazarus!" Vincent snarled. "I thought we were done with this shit! I thought that we were finished with the lying, the omnipotent crap you like to tout around as wisdom."

"And what would you have done in place of that Vincent? Say I told you about the nature of the riddle trailer and you decided to get off on one of those suicidal kicks like you did back in Delaware: What if you had waited to face the Widow of Jury Street-"

"There is no goddamn widow, it's a myth, a legend passed around to explain back stabbings and treachery!" Vincent snapped.

Three knocks interrupted the awkward tempest Leon found himself stuck in.

"Yes?" Vincent called from the couch.

"It's Haskel. We've cracked the first message. You're going to want to take a look at this Vincent."

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please rate and review!**


	3. Wrath of Cong, Part I

"_A key to no door_

_Smoldering ruin awaits_

_An altar below."_

Vincent looked down at the Riddle Trailer with unblemished hatred. 'Always with the fucking riddles.'

Even if it was in the inherent nature of the object to be puzzling, Vincent would have preferred a treasure map with a note attached stating death was eminent. Vincent knew from experience you could always kill you way to a prize, and that even death could be cold cocked in the face.

Vincent had yet to find a fucking puzzle he could do the same to.

"Well, so much for having the key to something like this. What good is a Russian speaker if he can't even translate it right?" Leon bitched from across the room. Nate shot him a seething look before replying.

"That is exactly what it says Leon. Not a mistranslation or me filling in words. If you'd like to learn an archaic language, go right ahead." Nate accented the last remark with an irritated wave of his hand.

Palmer shook his head before turning to Lazarus. "Can you make heads or tails of this?"

Lazarus stared at the small section intently, cross referencing every word with some hint of the wasteland he had seen so far. "I'm going to need to sleep on this."

Vincent dismissed Leon, Palmer, Lazarus, and Nate who all gratefully went off to their respective beds. Before heading up the stairs Vincent turns to Haskel, who is rapidly cleaning glasses by the bar.

"So long as we are actively trying to solve this thing none of us are going to end up murdered right?"

Haskel nods slowly. "As all testimonies regarding the materials go, that is correct. So long as we are working on the material and don't actually stop we can rest easily."

"So, someone needs to be actively working on it?"

"Not to my knowledge, no one needs to be actively working on it every hour of the day."

Vincent slowly nods. "Good, now go to bed Haskel."

"Sir?" Haskel looks… bemused. He's a slippery man, at once wary of Vincent's authority but unafraid of his skills.

"That's an order Margulies. Get some rest, we are dispatching a team east to the Regulator's HQ tomorrow for several contracts and I want you there to agree to terms on some of the bigger bounties."

"Understood Captain. Good night." Haskel nodded stiffly and silently left the building.

* * *

Rafael tossed and turned that night, unable to fall asleep. It had been a stressful night after word had spilled that St. Stephen's Log was sitting idle in their camp. The Riddle Trailer had a nasty history of inspiring treachery and greed amongst wastelanders.

As deeply unsettling as this thought was, it wasn't what was keeping him awake. Jesse was quietly tucked in on the other side of the room, not making a sound. None of his housemates were making noise, and apart from the wasteland winds there were no other sounds from the house.

Except the whispering going on in his head. Murmurs, echoes and fragments.

Rafael shut his eyes and tried to block them out. One word sticks out over and over however.

And that word was Adam.

* * *

Haskel had assembled Ginny, Leon, Felix and Siobhan for the day long trip to the Regulator HQ out by the front entrance to Ridgefield. As the team prepared to depart Rafael came bound out of Gibson House, fully dressed in armor and touting a Missile Launcher on his back.

"Looking to come with Rafael? I know you're itching for a chance to test out your missile launcher-"

"We need to go south."

Everyone in the group froze, save for the always impassive Haskel. "For what cause, pray tell?"

Rafael walked to the edge of the group. "Adam. I couldn't figure out what it meant, last night all I could hear was Adam in my head. It isn't Adam at all."

Felix shifted his feet uncomfortably, while Siobhan raised an eyebrow at her comrade.

"Rafe, buddy what are you talking about? Who said Adam?"

Rafael wiped the sweat gathering at his brow and looked pleadingly to Haskel. "It wasn't Adam at all. It was Atom! I thought the murmurs were Adam, but they were Atom! Do you understand?!"

Haskel stared at Rafael for an eternal minute, before his eyes flickered ever so slightly. He looked back towards Gillian House, to where Vincent was currently working with Lazarus and Anatoliy on the Riddle Trailer. "Leon, Virginia, how well could the two of you navigate to Megaton from here?"

"_What?!_ Why would we be trailing back down to Megaton-"

"Answer the question." Haskel snapped back, his normally even tone flaring with irritation.

Leon nodded slightly. "I know Ginny's done the route before, and with Rafael's Missile Launcher we should be able to make the trek in a couple of days. Maybe less if we hoofed it."

"Leon, take Virginia, Felix and Rafael to Megaton. Use the main roads, and I implore you to use brute force when applicable while en route. Siobhan, you will come with me to the Regulator HQ."

Ginny looked exasperated. "Our orders were pretty damn simple Haskel."

"And my instincts are telling me otherwise. You will go to Megaton, and you will follow Rafael's lead. If Vincent asks I have an appropriate cover story prepared for you four. He won't mind in the long run if I'm right about this."

"And you're just going to waltz through the wasteland with Siobhan as your only backup?"

"I've worse with less, I will persevere. Now get moving."

Leon led his companions out of Ridgefield and along a dirt trail that would take them towards Megaton.

* * *

"There has to be more, what kind of Riddle Trailer ends with the first paragraph?!"

Nate was sure that Vincent would drive him to drink before night fell. Rubbing his temples he flipped back towards the first clue they had deciphered the previous night.

"The first section was very clear, but everything else after it? It's just recipes for wasteland food. Brahmin Steaks and Mirelurk Cakes and that sort of thing but not a single corresponding clue."

Vincent took another swig of purified water before pacing back towards the bar. "What does that leave us with Nate?"

"Well, assuming I don't have to decode cooking recipes? I imagine we have to decode the first clue before we find hints of where the second is located."

A knock at the door interrupted Vincent's line of thinking. "Come in."

Haskel entered smoothly and immediately began to talk. "I had to make some adjustments to today's schedule. I came to inform you that I have redirected Leon, Felix, Virginia and even Rafael to Megaton, while Siobhan and I will travel to the Regulators."

Vincent wheeled around from where he was standing, despite his calm demeanor he was obviously caught off guard. "Why Megaton? Will they be safe? Why the sudden change?"

"My apologies for the sudden change, but I saw an opportunity and took it. As an expanding security company we have very few contracts and the addition of more contracts will only help us in our expansion. Leon and Virginia have already proven their worth to the townspeople, so our foot is securely in the door. Furthermore, Rafael has brought it to my attention that we have a limited number of explosive devices and requisitioned fragmentation mines and more grenades for the group. And I think we both know that if you didn't have faith in Virginia's survival skills you wouldn't be standing here arguing the fact."

Vincent stared long and hard at Haskel before replying. "If you aren't being up front with me, you need to reveal your motives right now. Otherwise, I want them back in four days."

"I didn't give them a time limit, but Rafael seemed adamant on being back sooner rather than later."

"If they aren't back within the time limit I am sending you out there to find them, and if you don't bring them back alive I will let the good doctor play with you. Do I make myself clear Haskel?"

Haskel nodded stiffly. "Crystalline. Siobhan and I will depart for the regulators now."

"Take Mirza and Jesse with you, Raiders and Talons are known to frequent the Scrapyard junction."

"As you command Captain."

* * *

The group arrived in Megaton that evening, mostly due to their light loads and hurried purpose. Deputy Weld greeted the Cowboys upon their entrance, and the four moved into the walled community with purpose. Leon was the first to strike up the conversation as the group moved into the grotto.

"So you heard voices in your head that told you about Adam, but you think Adam means Atom. Yeah, Rafe is there a reason we haven't put you out to pasture yet?"

Rafael merely trudged into the center of town, where the undetonated atomic bomb lay dormant. Confessor Cromwell continued to preach at his followers, and the air had taken on the sickly sweet haze that Leon had grown used to.

"The voice said Atom. Atom is the name of the bomb. Tell me Leon, if you were standing up on that balcony, or had entered the town and looked down into the grotto, what would you describe Atom as?"

It clicked just like that for Leon. "An Altar Below… Holy hell Rafe, All right then. You might be onto something here. All right everyone, we hunker down at Moira's for the night. We can confront this in the morning."

* * *

Thanks for reading, please rate/review or message me with questions/comments!


	4. Wrath of Cong, Part II

The following day was fairly quiet for the Cowboys at Megaton. After an early breakfast at the Brass Lantern the crew split up around town to search for clues regarding the riddle trailer.

Leon and Felix investigated the local Church of Atom, with Leon asking about the history of the bomb while Felix prowled through their rectory in search of hidden keys. Leon got an earful of religious nonsense while Felix found mostly junk and an unopened bottle of Scotch… which he may or may not have nicked from the Confessor's office.

Ginny had a private chat with Simms about the recent events of the town. She had wanted see if the aging sheriff had seen anything out of the ordinary was taking place. Several caravans were presently in town, but otherwise things had been normal.

Rafael inspected the bomb itself. From his appraisal the bomb was live but unarmed. Rafael made a mental note of asking Leon about a possible diffuser contract in the near future. With the current tools he had on him however, he couldn't hope to diffuse more than a landmine, let alone a two-hundred year old nuclear warhead.

As the day dragged on the team eventually reconvened at Moriarty's for analyzing what they had found throughout their day.

Rafael walked in to the dirty bar and headed straight for a table towards the back where Ginny, Leon and Felix were situated, passing by a suited businessman, Nova the working girl and the bar row where Gob was dishing out drinks.

Rafael pulled out a chair and sat down amidst his compatriots. "I've got nothing."

"You aren't the only one, we've been hunting down lead for this hidden key and we've got jack to shit to show for it."

"What kind of key doesn't open a door?" Felix asked, face scrunched in displeasure at his charred squirrel. Moriarty was a bad barman and a worse cook.

"Terminal code perhaps? Maybe it accesses one of those terminals we're constantly finding out in the wastes." Ginny supplied while cutting her Brahmin fillet into chewable pieces.

"That's always a possibility. The third line referred to the location of the key, but we don't know what it unlocks yet." Leon remarked in between bites of his Iguana.

"Except that it isn't a door." Felix added unhelpfully.

"Brilliant work there Felix, how about you make yourself useful and go pay up for our tab."

"Awww bullshit! Why do I have to pay?"

"Because the rest of us are pulling seniority on you-"

"Vincent said that you weren't allowed to abuse your rank-"

"-Based on age." Leon finished smugly, shooing away the ex-Lamplighter. As Felix walked towards the bar Leon called out to him. "What else are you going to spend all of your caps on kiddo? Bullets? Nova?"

"A man who has to pay for it is no man at all." Rafael toasted to Leon, who clinked his glass back. "Amen brother."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I don't know why I put up with you two pigs. You especially Leon, although don't think I forgot about you Rafael."

"And what did I do wrong Bonita?" Rafael grinned at the placid Ginny.

"Becca. That was uncalled for and unnecessary."

Rafael nodded slowly before shrugging. "She made the call, if she's going to sleep it up with most of the camp then that's her prerogative."

"Prerogative… what does that mean?" Ginny mouthed to Leon. "She can do as she pleases… wait how did you know that Rafe? I thought you were some caravaneer's bastard." Leon answered to Ginny while grilling Rafael.

"You can get an education anywhere." Rafael answered noncommittally.

Leon looked far from convinced but Ginny steamrolled past his argument. "Look, I get it. You and Jaxon are hardened killers from the wastes, and I know the laws work a little differently depending on where you are and who you ran with. But when you run with the Cowboys? I know Vincent doesn't like this shit, and Haskel wrote these rules up for a reason…"

"You don't know Haskel Margulies. You have nothing to go on but word of mouth. Word of advice Virginia, don't let word of mouth color your opinion. It's liable to get you killed out in the wastes."

Felix returned to the table. "Tab's been paid, let's go get some rest."

Leon nodded and stood up. "We'll meet with Walter tomorrow, ask about any terminals in town that would require keys to access. If not Moira might have some more info. Surely there's been a terminal here that has been coded within the last ten years."

Rafael nodded his head in agreement. "I'm going to stay back here for a little while, I've got some thinking to do."

"Just don't stay up, you'll need your beauty sleep." Leon joked, all too vividly remembering Rafael's night terrors and the whispers.

Rafael snorted and took another swig of his beer, as he waved off his companions who quietly exited the bar.

After counting slowly to fifteen seconds Rafael stood up from his seat and walked to the anteroom by the entrance to the bar, standing right in front of a Beige-suited businessman, who was drinking quietly and reading over personal letters.

"Burke?"

The man looked up at Rafael, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

"Little Rafael, aren't you just the puzzle piece I was looking for."

* * *

"I wasn't sure it was you, but you are in uniform. How is it that no one's run you out of town yet?"

Burke took another sip of wine before setting his glass on end table next to his chair.

"When you travel like I do you don't exactly advertise your name and manager."

Rafael nodded. "What are you doing here Burke? I thought Tenpenny fired your ass."

Burke visibly flinches at the comment. "I went into retirement, enjoyed the wonderful sights of the wasteland. After Mr. Margulies abandoned his position I was summoned to resume my duties. I didn't mind much."

"You were Tenpenny's Talon liaison weren't you? You shacked up over at Bannister while Haskel pushed around various wastelanders for their land and goods."

"Mister Tenpenny has very specific plans for the Capital Wasteland, and you have a golden opportunity to be part of them."

Rafael tapped his hand along his leg. "Go on."

"Do you consent to this agreement?"

"If I know what I'm consenting to."

"Very well… well you're essentially rewiring Atom."

A cold feeling settled in the pit of Rafael's stomach. "For what purpose?"

"I shouldn't have to spell it out Rafael, but I can promise you three things for your services: Firstly, a room in Tenpenny Tower; Secondly, 2,000 caps to be delivered upon meeting me at Tenpenny Tower following the correction."

"And the third thing?"

"I can introduce you to your father. You can be formally reunited after roughly twenty years of separation."

"Where is my father?" Rafe asked.

"Not until you've followed through will you become privy to that information. If you are interested then I expect you to come back tomorrow."

"I'll… be sure to sleep on it Burke."

"Please, my name here is Mr. Manhattan."

* * *

Vincent had been sitting at his desk, repairing his combat shotgun methodically when a loud knock interrupted him.

"Vincent, we've got a significant problem." Haskel's voice echoed from outside his door.

Vincent shot up and opened the door, revealing the gaunt man.

"The problem? How were the Regulators?"

"Pressing, and they were informative. Vincent, the Regulators informed me that a Brotherhood party returning from Fort Constantine was hit as they were working they were passing Bethesda. The Regulator's state that the entire expedition was wiped out and that their pack animals and loot were missing, alongside nearly a whole arsenal of energy weapons."

"Not exactly pressing Haskel, why is this a problem."

"The Power Armor was left behind. Hundreds of caps worth of Power Armor was left behind while a large amount of tech was pilfered."

Vincent rubbed at his chin and motioned for Haskel to sit down. "Energy weapons and tech… but no power armor taken. Power armor is crushingly heavy… could the raiders have left it behind?"

Haskel shook his head. "The bodies were of a proximity to Bethesda that it would be asinine to think the raiders didn't strip the bodies of their armor."

"What do we know about the tech taken from Fort Constantine?"

"I conferred with Teo upon arriving, he mentioned a recovery of bomb related materials at the Bomb storage building."

"Bomb related materials… anything specific?"

"Casings, timers, detonators-"

"Wait, how close from Bethesda were the bodies found?"

"Almost to the Potomac Junction by Wilhelm's Wharf."

"Suspects?"

"Regulators can only peg two groups with enough kick to bring down Brotherhood patrols and loot the corpses: Super mutants and Talons. There are no known Mutant bases around that junction, but the Regulators noted that Talon patrols have been spotted around the DC side of the river."

"So the Talons are making bombs, we may need to form a contract in cooperation with the Regulators, get paid to eliminate Talon presences around the outskirts of DC."

"What bothers me is that Constantine was the largest pre-war Nuclear Warhead storage in DC. If the Talons are looking to construct weaponry, why would they start… building something so…"

"Parts for a bomb, but nothing to arm it with?"

As realization crashed around the two men, they looked at each other. "They aren't building a bomb, they're arming one. When you worked for Tenpenny, did you ever order any covert hits on wastelander towns?"

Haskel shifts uncomfortably. "Calverton, but that was years ago."

"Not my point, did you ever send them in disguised."

"For that mission, yes. We needed them to blend in in order to assassinate the residents…"

"Go grab Jaxon, I'll load up some weapons and inform Lazarus of our departure, meet me at the front gate in fifteen minutes."

"If we don't stop we can make it to Megaton in by daybreak."

"Nighttime travel could get us killed, but I don't see any other choice."

With a nod Haskel moved outside, while Vincent slide the last component of his shotgun into place.

* * *

As Rafael began to drift off to sleep he heard the whispers yet again.

"_Ruin awaits."_

"Ruin for what?" He mumbled before he succumbed to sleep, unaware of the ramifications of what he was going to do at daybreak.


	5. Wrath of Cong, Part III

Ginny couldn't swear to being a light sleeper. Her father, a wasteland regular could have woken at the drop of a pin and fired twice before a midday breeze had passed. Ginny on the other hand slept a little more easily, having grown up in behind the shielded walls of Megaton. It took more than light sounds to wake her from sleep.

The creaking of the Craterside Supply's front door was just enough however to wake her. Ginny could tell that it was still the wee hours of the morning, before the sun had risen and the townspeople had begun to rise. By this moment only Stockholm and old Walter would be awake and moving about. Which raised the question of exactly _who_ was using the front door to Craterside Supply.

Ginny raised her head in the storage room where her comrades were staying. Leon lay inert to the world on the cot next to her, while Felix was sleeping in the corner opposite to the door. Which left Rafael's mattress…

"Empty." Ginny whispered to herself, working through the reasons a mercenary would need to wander Megaton before everyone else rose. There weren't many that ended on a positive note.

Ginny sat upright and began to strap on the various parts of her leather armor before holstering her revolver and creeping into the main room of the shop. Neither Moira nor Neil, her long suffering bodyguard had emerged from their respective rooms, leaving the actual shop empty.

Ginny noted the unlocked front door with growing concern before slipping out into the pre-Dawn Megaton. Despite the hazy fugue surrounding the bowl, Ginny could make out a figure descending the ramp adjacent to Doc Church's Clinic. Crouching down and utilizing what cover she had, Ginny began to stalk the figure as he crept past the Brass Lantern towards the small shack opposite Atom.

Ginny gazed through the haze and attempted to discern the individual: He was bulky, with larger shoulders and some kind of large bag in hand. About halfway to the cottage he made a sharp right and stopped at the bomb. Ginny watched in silence for the next ten minutes as the figure at the base of the bomb removed the cover and set his bag on the ground. The figure spent the next forty minutes or so tinkering at the base of the bomb. As much as she wanted to rush in and confront the figure, Ginny had learned twice now that bold movements were the surest route to death when it concerned a Cowboy. That was assuming this was a Cowboy at the base of Atom…

Ginny couldn't kid herself. Even though it was starting to lighten up, Ginny still couldn't make out the figure at the base of the bomb, although all evidence pointed to Rafael: The empty mattress, the bulky figure and the fact that he was tinkering with an Explosive device lead Ginny to believe that it was most likely Rafael crouched on the other side of the bomb. Daybreak was beginning to emerge over Megaton when the figure shifted stances and picked the cover off of the ground and began to screw it back into place.

Ginny crept down the catwalk as quietly as she could and held her ground at the last section of covered railing, just barely hiding her figure. As the dawn rose over Megaton the figure grabbed his bag and moved back towards the Craterside Supply. 'Lock and load.' Ginny thought to herself as she unholstered her revolver. She then sprang from her cover and leveled her pistol at a bewildered Rafael who had made it less than five feet before Ginny had cornered him.

"Hands up, drop the bag!" Ginny shouted at him.

Rafael froze, his eyes wide with fear. "Ginny… I had to do it, I couldn't risk the alternative-"

Ginny took a step closer, her weapon never leaving Rafael's body. "I'm going to need some answers bucko, starting with what you spent the night doing."

As she spoke various Wastelanders began to emerge from their homes: Jenny Stahl began to ferry items onto the outside counter of the Brass Lantern; Harden Simms and Maggie Creel raced down into the crater. Confessor Cromwell exited the Church of Atom. Ginny noted a tall, suited man and several of the visiting Caravaneers who had gathered on the catwalk opposite Ginny.

One of the Caravaneers, a heavily built black man with a sharp look in his eyes, whispered something in the ear of the suited man. He nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving Ginny and Rafael.

The front gate opening was heard behind them as the Wastelanders began to take note of the standoff occurring in the center of the crater. Ginny's grip tightened around her gun. Looking back up to the balcony where the small gathering was watching them with interest and towards Rafael, a creeping thought began to form in Ginny's mind.

"What have you done Rafael? What the fuck have you done?!"

"I did what I had to do." Rafael answered surely, his eyes fixed on Ginny's.

Ginny heard footfalls behind her and the steady murmur of voices.

"And I tell you Vince, these fuckin' scorpions are everywhere. I get tired of stepping on that-"

* * *

Vincent, Haskel and Jaxon had just entered the town, moving towards the entrance of the crater when they came upon Ginny aiming her weapon at a defenseless Rafael.

Jaxon had been complaining about the wasteland when he stopped and found himself staring at the scene as well.

"Ginny, what the hell is going on here?" Vincent called out, appraising the scene.

"Oh fuck me." Jaxon murmured, Vincent looked up towards the balcony where a black wastelander was staring daggers at Jaxon.

Everything seemed to click at once.

"JAXON!" The caravaneer roared, unholstering an assault rifle and firing on the group. All five Cowboys dove for various forms of cover.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKIN' DESERTER! JABSCO'S GONNA PAY A PRETTY PRICE FOR YOUR HEAD!" The man roared from his place on the catwalk, where his suited companion had run in the opposite direction. "LIGHT 'EM UP BOYS!"

* * *

Double Update day! Stay tuned for the next chapter!

Thanks for reading and be sure to review!


	6. Wrath of Cong, Part IV

The situation was not exactly tipped in favor of the Cowboys.

More than a dozen Talon Mercenaries were firing at the Cowboys and any other Wastelander in the town with gusto, and the make things worse they were all in _disguise_.

Vincent had rolled behind the counter of the Brass Lantern along with Haskel who was tending to Jenny Stahl, who had been shot in the arm in the initial firefight. Ginny was ducking behind the bomb, while Jaxon had dived underneath the Catwalk ramp, leaning out between the Talon Mercenaries reloads to pepper their cover with fire.

"Ginny, give me the story!" Vincent yelled at his beleaguered comrade.

Ginny broke cover to fire at the cluster of four Mercenaries on the catwalk before ducking back and yelling at Vincent. "I caught Rafael doing something with the bomb this morning, and then these fuckers showed up. They didn't start shooting until Jaxon walked in! Seriously, can we just shoot his ass as well?"

"Hey! Screw you too sweetheart! You just can't keep that pistol of yours in your pants!" Jaxon rebounded from the ramp.

"Like you have any room to talk!" Ginny shouted back as a hail of 5.56's smashed into the side of Atom.

"OY! Both of you shut it and start shooting!" Vincent barked before unholstering his sidearm and firing at the balcony.

The four mercenaries continued to rain fire on the Cowboys, occasionally stopping to reload. There were no sight of the villagers now, but gunfire could be heard in different parts of Megaton, suggesting a full scale invasion of the town. Vincent knew they needed to start dropping foes and fast unless they wanted to be boxed in.

Two talons on your four Vincent!" Ginny yelled from her cover. Vincent murmured a curse and switched to his combat shotgun. Haskel had switched to his Magnum and had already picked off one of the four Talons firing from above.

"I'll draw their fire; you go around by the gate and take them from the catwalk's entrance. If we split their attention we can take them." Haskel suggested. Vincent nodded and dove into the entrance between Doc Church's and The Brass Lantern. Two Talons creeping along the edge were momentarily startled by Vincent's dramatics and hesitated.

Vincent unloaded a round of his shotgun into the upper body of one of the Talons, sending the man flying backwards limply. Vincent bounded towards the other Talon as the man raised his SMG at Vincent. Vincent smashed in the man's face with the butt of his gun. With a sickening crack the man tumbled backwards giving Vincent precious seconds to destroy what was left of the man's face via buckshot.

Vincent was about to move forward when he noticed the frag grenade clipped to the Talon's belt. Grabbing the grenade, Vincent quickly and quietly raced up the stairs past the house where they had first met Haskel and crouched to avoid being seen by the remaining three- two Talons as the aforementioned third crumpled to the ground from a burst of Jaxon's SMG fire.

Vincent ripped the pin off of the grenade and hurled it in the direction of the last two Talons. The look on the Talon's face as he saw the grenade helped mitigate the atrocious morning Vincent was experiencing. The grenade exploded outwards, and when the dust had cleared all that remained was a pulpy mess of limbs and viscera.

"Nice baby, now if you could go get that business man and Rafael that would be great!" Ginny shouted from behind her cover.

"What businessman? The only person I saw was Rafael creeping away during the shooting."

"Wait, was he in a beige suit and did he wear a brown fedora?!" Haskel asked hurriedly from his cover. Ginny replied in the affirmative.

"Vincent! You have to find that man and end him!" Haskel shouted from below, emerging from cover briefly.

"I don't follow, but consider it done." Vincent hoped Haskel wouldn't take a shining to giving him orders after this was over.

"No, this is far larger than I first thought. This reeks of Alistair Tenpenny, and if he brought Burke out of retirement then our time is finite!" A round of gunfire erupted from the opposite catwalk as a group of Talons emerged from the Water Treatment facility and rained fire on the Cowboys.

"Right, on it!" Vincent shouted as he barreled in the direction of Moriarty's Saloon.

* * *

Ginny ducked just in time to avoid a .308 round from taking her head off.

"You aint very good at ducking, are you?" Jaxon chuckled as he lobbed a grenade over his head at the five strong group of Talons gathered by the Water Treatment facility.

"Drop it and focus!" Ginny growled at Jaxon as Atom took yet another hit.

"If these fuckers keep shooting a live atomic bomb then we won't have to worry about anything else!" Jaxon sneered as his grenade went off. The screams confirmed that it had at least hit one of the Talons.

"We should try pushing up the catwalk, They won't hold their cover if we get close enough."

"They don't have any armor on, but they may not back off as easily as you think. All right girlie, let's do something _wild_!" Jaxon cackled as he jumped up from behind the bomb, firing his entire clip at the cover of the Talons. Ginny took a slightly more reserved approach and aimed for Talons that popped their heads up; their combined fire was enough to keep the Talons at bay if not wound any of them. As they ascended the ramp the Talons grew bolder. One Talon whipped his head out and fired a shot at the pair, hitting Jaxon's plating. Jaxon fired a volley at him, catching the man in the face and (Ginny at least hoped) killing him.

"You okay?!" Ginny asked as she kept her gun trained on the area above them. Jaxon grunted noncommittally and pushed onwards. The two rounded the corner to find four Talons, one heavily wounded from the earlier grenade, aiming their weapons at them.

The man with the Sniper Rifle raised said weapon to fire at Ginny when a long knife protruded from his throat. Gagging on his own blood, the man slumped to the ground to reveal a feral looking Felix. Leon stepped out from behind his own cover and proceeded to put down one of the other Talons with three short bursts of gunfire. Caught in the crossfire, Jaxon killed the last standing Talon while Ginny executed the wounded man with a bullet to the head.

Ginny nodded to Leon and Felix. "Thanks guys. Any more of these dicks lying about?"

Eon shook his head. "Not from what we can tell. We just saw Rafael slip out the front gate. Stockholm's been shot, and I have no idea if he's okay and-"

Leon was cut off when he caught sight of Vincent hauling ass towards the group. "Burke is at the front, he's outside and we need to get him, NOW!" Vincent shouted, with the group scrambling to follow Vincent's sprint to the main gate.

* * *

Thanks for reading, be sure to rate and review!


	7. Wrath of Cong, Part V

They were greeted to the sight of Rafael aiming his gun on the Cowboys, with Burke holding a detonator in his hand, looking flustered and livid.

"You _bastards_. It was supposed to be quiet and simple, a small job that no one would have suffered from. And now you've gone and ruined _everything_." Burke snarled from several feet away from the entrance.

"Give it up Burke, you are surrounded. Better to come quietly than for us to put you down." Vincent spoke through labored breaths.

"My finger is on the trigger boy, it won't be quick or quiet. Simply nothing. Now throw your weapons down and you might walk away with your lives."

"And the people of Megaton?" Ginny quarreled.

"A job is a job girl, you should know better."

"I know that I'm this close to ending you Burke." Ginny hissed back.

"Ahh Haskel, you repugnant ladder climber. I will enjoy taking you with me. I'll see you all in hell."

Burke pressed the switch and the world froze.

Except that nothing happened. There was no bright light or thunderous boom, no flash of heat or agony. The world carried on as it had been. Burke pressed the button again.

Nothing.

"Rafael what di-"

***BANG***

Burke slumped to the ground, clutching his stomach. Coughing blood he tried to speak but was cut off by Rafael quietly putting another two rounds into his torso, effectively ending his life.

Rafael turned back towards his comrades, looking apologetic. "I'm sorry I didn't reveal myself immediately, I couldn't risk Burke trying anything else if he knew I had disarmed the bomb."

"We… look let's all go sit down and hash this out. We've been traveling all night to prevent this shit and I could really use a drink." Vincent commanded with the remaining Cowboys agreeing in their own fashions.

* * *

_Two hours later…_

"So let me get this straight: You didn't blow up Megaton because of your conscience but because you dreamed that you shouldn't and that it would be a poor move on your part?" Leon asked.

"Something like that. After Burke offered me the job I thought over everything and after I fell asleep I kept dreaming those words from the Log, and it just seemed right to not follow Burke's path."

The group had entered the city and met with a shell-shocked Lucas Simms, whose son Harden had been shot during the fighting. Harden was undergoing surgery at the clinic, where five other members of Megaton were currently recovering from their injuries. All fourteen Talons had been killed during the fighting, with Felix claiming two kills outside of the sniper he jumped and Stockholm claiming one before he was wounded.

As recompense for saving their entire town, Simms awarded the group with the keys to the house Lazarus had rented out for their first meeting almost a month prior. After receiving a cart of food from Andy Stahl as thanks for saving his sister's life, the group set about making a small breakfast before going over then events of that day.

"I don't get it, why did you think the answer to the book was Megaton?" Vincent asked with nothing but curiosity.

Rafael shook his head in disagreement. "The altar was Megaton, and ruin would have been if the bomb was activated. Since Atom is an inert warhead it would have taken a trigger of some kind to detonate it. A _key _if you will."

Vincent nodded, putting together the pieces of the puzzle.

Rafael reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a piece of technology. "This is what Burke gave me to activate the bomb. It's called a Fission Detonator."

Vincent frowned. "Interesting, but I don't see how that leads to the next piece of the puzzle."

Rafael shrugged. "I don't know what it does specifically, but I bet once we get back and analyze the rest of the log we will be able to figure out what it leads to next."

"Well, that solves one problem, but we've opened about twenty more." Haskel finished sourly.

"What do you mean Haskel? We stopped the bad guys and saved Megaton. I'd say that was a good day." Felix asked, perhaps somewhat naively.

Haskel scoffed at the notion. "What we _did_ was kill the right hand of Alistair Tenpenny, over a dozen of his hired Mercenaries and foil his plans for the destruction of Megaton. Let me assure any of you who think otherwise that Alistair Tenpenny _never_ forgets a slight against him. We will have to expect more and more Talon Company hit squads and independent bounty hunters coming after us. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Tenpenny issues bounties on _every_ one of our heads."

"Let that old bag come at us. He may be rich, and he may have an army, but he won't be able to follow us around the entire wasteland. Besides, with Burke gone he will scramble to find some asshole to kiss his feet and we all know how long that shit's gonna take. He'll be outta commission for at least a month." Jaxon finished coolly.

"Well, a rent free safe house, a couple hundred extra caps and appreciation from the town of Megaton is pretty nice." Leon supplied.

"All right, let's bag our supplies and get going, we left the camp in a state of disarray and I doubt they will react fondly to that at all." Vincent huffed. The Cowboys nodded in assent and began preparations for the road home.

* * *

And that finishes the first of several arcs. Now to address some items:

-Expect most of the "mission" based arcs to be fairly different from the game. They will retain a lot of the elements of the quests themselves, but I've played with their layouts in order to give them faster paces. Plot also gets moved around for some of the more repetitive quests (Nuka-Cola Challenge anyone?)

-Hold your questions about the Logs and the Widow for later. It's all part of the plot.

-In a few weeks I will be starting classes for the fall, which will ironically give me more time to write. I won't tell you guys to expect any fixed schedule, but I will do my best to sit down more and write more content. While I have a general story in place I would love to hear what you guys want to see more of, be that action or dialogue or romance or plot based interactions.

-The length of these arcs will really vary based on the quests themselves and how I feel they fit with the plot of the story. This is a very short in-game quest, while The Wasteland Survival Guide can be a very involved process for some players (Unless you cheat and utilize certain perks and skills to access every possible shortcut)

-The DLC's will come into play, and I've decided their lengths as well.

As always thank you guys for reading and please rate/review.


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